"The precondition is mitigation by developed countries and
money to support developing countries, as well as technology,"
Huang said today. "Without this precondition, it's unfair to
ask developing countries to do more."
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
UN Climate Talks Stall on China Spat Over Emissions (Update1)
2010-10-08 10:48:13.116 GMT
(Adds reaction from delegates from fifth paragraph.)
By Stuart Biggs
Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- China said a failure by developed
nations to honor their commitments to cut greenhouse-gas
emissions is hindering progress in talks in Tianjin aimed at
reaching an agreement to tackle climate change.
Negotiations between delegates from about 175 governments
in Tianjin, northern China, are being held up as the host
country declined to discuss the legal framework for a second set
of emissions reductions under the Kyoto Protocol after the first
expires in 2012.
China is boycotting the talks because developed countries
listed in the Protocol are trying to add a global target rather
than discuss their individual commitments, said Huang Huikang,
China's special representative for climate change negotiations
at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"Our intervention is not to block discussions of the Kyoto
Protocol group, we just want to keep the group's discussion the
right way," Huang told reporters today. "The key issue is the
lack of substantive progress on the developed countries' side."
The holdup prevents discussion on countries' commitments to
reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from going forward, Jurgen
Lefevere, an EU climate adviser and co-chair of the Kyoto
Protocol working group, said in an interview this week.
Countries are unwilling to finalize emissions commitments
until they know what new rules will cover issues like land use
or agriculture, he said. China, Saudi Arabia and Brazil are the
main blockers, he said.
Last Chance
In New Zealand, where about 50 percent of emissions come
from agriculture, a rule change could affect the country's
emissions reduction target by as much as 4 percent, the New
Zealand delegation said today in a meeting.
"This is not a sustainable situation," Australia's
delegation said of the impasse.
The Tianjin meeting is the last chance before envoys meet
in Cancun, Mexico, for Nov. 29 to Dec. 10 talks to help reach an
agreement that even the United Nations has said is unlikely this
year. The last climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009 failed to
produce a binding agreement even after leaders including U.S.
President Barack Obama flew in to try to hammer out a deal.
The Copenhagen talks broke down over issues including
setting a global emissions reduction target and developing a
system to measure and verify emissions cuts. Specifically, the
U.S. and others wanted China and some larger developing
countries to accept higher scrutiny of their reduction measures.
China said richer nations should pledge deeper emissions cuts.
'This Precondition'
"The precondition is mitigation by developed countries and
money to support developing countries, as well as technology,"
Huang said today. "Without this precondition, it's unfair to
ask developing countries to do more."
The U.S. lead negotiator Jonathan Pershing said this week
that the U.S. is willing to be flexible with poorer nations even
though China, India and Brazil have the "capacity" to be
transparent about their emissions reduction measures.
"I don't think this is a big problem for China, China's
Huang said today. "Our main concern now is that developed
countries honor their commitment first, then we will seriously
consider sitting down to discuss other issues."
The time may have come for the U.S. and China to "have
negotiations inside the negotiations" to prevent the issue
derailing progress on other issues, Dessima Williams, chair of
the Alliance of Small Island States and Grenada's ambassador to
the UN, said today in an interview.
"It's the brinkmanship game again, if you don't jump, I
won't jump," she said. "This is not a correct approach to
negotiations because people's lives are at stake."
China, the most populous country and biggest emitter of
greenhouse gases, is hosting a meeting of the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change for the first time.
For Related News and Information:
Top renewable energy, environment stories: GREEN <GO>
Energy top news age: ETOP <GO>
Carbon data page: CARX <GO>
--Editors: Peter Langan, Randall Hackley
To contact the reporters on this story:
Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at +81-3-3201-3093 or
sbiggs3@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at +44-20-7330-7862 or
landberg@bloomberg.net.
